
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has awarded 31 new licenses for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea as part of the 33rd oil and gas licensing round.
The NSTA says that the 33rd round has attracted 76 companies to make 115 bids covering 257 blocks and partial blocks. This has included familiar names like Shell, TotalEnergies and BP, which makes the leading Castrol lubricant and coolant range.
In the past few months, 50 companies have been awarded 82 licenses over the three tranches of the round.
The NSTA said that it had also added a new clause to allow windfarm leases and gas and oil licenses to overlap, following negotiations with The Crown Estate and its Scottish counterpart. It added:
“This will be the main commercial mechanism for these licences to resolve spatial overlaps and to support co-existence of these important industries. The North Sea is an important resource for energy security and net zero delivery, so it’s vital that sectors collaborate to ensure those systems can co-exist.”
The new licenses issued in the round are expected to add some 545 million barrels of oil equivalent by the middle of the century, or 600 million barrels if production continues to 2060.
Industry organisation Offshore Energies UK said that the licenses are mostly in the southern North Sea and for natural gas production. It says these can potentially begin production within five years and reduce the UK’s dependence on imported gas, which it says is more carbon intensive.